The first thing you notice is the light\u2014soft and golden, spilling through the conference hall windows in Colombo. It\u2019s early, but not everyone\u2019s face appears rested. The founder of WSO2, however, is smiling as he jokes about being the only one in the room who isn\u2019t sleep-deprived. The laughter cuts through the haze of jet lag. This isn\u2019t a typical corporate summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a milestone gathering: 20 years since a small Sri Lankan software startup set out to rewrite how enterprises think about technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, WSO2 powers multiple industries across public sector, fintech, healthcare, retail, telcodigital infrastructure across 90 countries. And yet, even now, it\u2019s the Founder and CEO. CEO, Sanjiva Weerawarana, stands in his trademark WSO2-branded T-shirt and jeans, telling a packed room: \u201cWe\u2019ve never believed in locking you in. If you choose another partner one day, you should be free to do so. We hope we\u2019ve earned your trust enough to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UAE, digital transformation has become a national priority. At WSO2\u2019s anniversary summit, regional partners and global architects debated how AI can accelerate change – if technology is open, adaptable and built on trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not Silicon Valley bombast. There are no promises of unicorns or moonshots here. Instead, there\u2019s a quiet confidence in something that feels rare in tech: openness – not just as a licensing model, but as a philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building tech that doesn\u2019t chain you<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The draw, according to one Middle Eastern partner, isn\u2019t just the code. It\u2019s transparency in an age where black-box software feels like a geopolitical risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTrust is earned, not sold,\u201d said a customer of WSO2 during a panel interaction. \u201c<\/em>You don\u2019t just pick a tech vendor based on features. You pick the one you can call at 3 a.m. and know they\u2019ll show up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He leans forward, recalling a recent client crisis: \u201cWSO2\u2019s support team? They answered an E3 ticket in under 30 minutes. That\u2019s not SLA language – that\u2019s trust, in action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conversation meandered from technology to relationships and back again. In markets like the Gulf, where regulation, compliance and national security often intertwine, a vendor\u2019s code matters\u2014but its character matters more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Modernisation: The messy, human journey behind the buzzword<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in the day, another speaker posed a question that hung in the air: \u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between a 10-year-old enterprise app and an \u201880s sports car?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pause. A few chuckles. Someone in the back muttered, \u201cBoth break if you push them too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly. Application modernisation, the summit\u2019s unsexy, beating heart, isn\u2019t a shiny cloud migration slide. It\u2019s the reality of trying to make old, mission-critical systems bend to the demands of a digital-first economy. Black Friday traffic surges that crash checkout portals. Banking apps that can\u2019t talk to new payment rails. Healthcare records are stuck in silos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cModernisation isn\u2019t a switch you flip,\u201d said one of WSO2\u2019s solution architects. \u201cIt\u2019s a journey. And most of it is fixing invisible plumbing, so businesses can finally build what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What matters, of course, isn\u2019t APIs or integrations in themselves. It\u2019s what sits on top of them: new banking experiences in Oman\u2019s Vision 2040, cross-border trade platforms, digitised citizen services. Every success story here came wrapped in human stakes\u2014patients accessing care faster, governments simplifying bureaucracy, startups scaling overnight without collapsing under their tech debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI without the hype<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was an AI talk, naturally – there always is these days. But it wasn\u2019t pitched as magic. Instead, it was treated as a tool, often invisible, making the grunt work less painful. One demo showed a healthcare system mapping patient records from one standard to another in seconds, powered by machine learning. \u201cIt used to take weeks,\u201d the presenter said. \u201cNow it takes a prompt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The underlying message: AI isn\u2019t going to build the future for you. It won\u2019t design your banking platform, reimagine your citizen services, or invent your business model. But it can clear the rubble, eliminate manual drudgery and let humans get back to solving real problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20 years later, still a startup at heart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n WSO2 isn\u2019t young anymore – 20 years is a lifetime in software. And yet, the energy in Colombo didn\u2019t feel corporate. It felt like a room full of builders, still restless, still asking why things are done the way they are, still unwilling to accept \u201cthat\u2019s how it\u2019s always been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re structured enough to deliver, but unstructured enough to evolve,\u201d Sanjiva said, reflecting on the company\u2019s philosophy. \u201cIf we were the same company we were ten years ago, we\u2019d already be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The summit closed not with a product pitch, but a reminder that technology, especially open technology, isn\u2019t about control, but about longevity and freedom. And that modernisation, AI and digital transformation are only meaningful if they make life tangibly better – for businesses, for governments and for people trying to get things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were no illusions of a perfect future. 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